Yuliya Zakharava was born in Grodno, Belarus. At an early age, she developed her passion for music. Yuliya began playing the piano when she was six and she composed music at the age of eight. After studying with a renowned composer Dmitry Smolsky, Yuliya has relocated to Canada where she acquired her master’s degree in composition under the direction of Ana Sokolović. Yuliya was selected as a resident composer of the Montreal Contemporary Dance School in 2014 and 2015.
Upon completing her project in collaboration with the Radio Canada (associated with ICI Musique) in spring 2015, Yuliya has won the first prize of the University of Montreal Orchestra contest. In autumn 2015, she has become a DEPA scholarship winner. Since then Yuliya composed for both the stage and the concert hall. Her catalog contains numerous compositions for orchestra, chamber orchestra, string quartet, wind quintet, organ, several bands, solo pieces as well as contemporary dance music.
Yuliya Zakharava’s works have been performed in Montreal by the University of Montreal Orchestra under the direction of Jean-François Rivest in winter 2014 and in winter 2015; by the Contemporary Music Workshop under the direction of Lorraine Vaillancourt in spring 2015; in the Orford Arts Center under the direction of Ana Sokolović, Jean Lesage, and Véronique Lacroix in summer 2014 and summer 2015; and in Minsk by the Belarus Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Gennady Provatorov in spring 2005.
Inspired by the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, Arvo Pärt, and Alfred Schnittke, Yuliya finds particular interest in Belarusian folklore songs. She redefines, restructures and reinvents these traditional pieces to create her abstract, intense and passionate music.